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*Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.*

The rain that started the other day still poured down in sheets, unrelenting. Because the floor was already crumbling in places, the water streaming in through holes in the ceiling simply drained into the underground—so far, it hadn’t caused real trouble.

Even so, that feeling of gloom when you wake up to another rainy morning was unbearable. This time around, my hair reached all the way down my back, and my tail was especially thick-furred. In this damp air, everything felt sticky and miserable. With the texture of this fur, humidity was a disaster.

“Mmm…”

Unable to go outside, Sufi sulked beside me with her tail drooping. All of a sudden she stood, and before I knew it, she leapt out into the rain. She shook her hair out and began scrubbing her head under the downpour.

Dirty black water trickled down her body and into the ground.

…Ah, so that’s what she’s doing. True, we hadn’t been able to bathe for quite a while, and we were filthy. My nose, dull for a wolfen, had long since stopped noticing, but the smell must have been awful.

I wouldn’t normally choose to get soaked in the rain, but… well.

“Alright then…”

I got up, gathered firewood, and lit a fire near the entrance. Then I stepped out to stand next to Sufi.

When I shivered under the rainwater, Sufi noticed and kindly helped wash my hair.

“Alice, don’t get too wet, okay?”
“Yeah. I lit a fire, just in case.”

My frail body would break into a fever at the slightest carelessness. My immune system gave out faster than my muscles ever did. Back home I hadn’t realized it, but living with poor health made the world so much harder to endure.

This world… judging from the village, its level of civilization was barely better than early modern times.

Magic could produce strange phenomena, sometimes making things as convenient as—or even more than—modern Japan. But those luxuries belonged to the wealthy. If we’d been ordinary farmers, magic would’ve been far outside our reaches.

“Then let’s hurry and finish washing.”
“…I want shampoo.”
“What’s that?”
“Like soap… but for hair?”
“Don’t be greedy. Here, your tail too.”
“’Kay.”

I held out my tail, closed my eyes, and let her scrub it clean.

Maybe now that I had the knowledge, I could actually make shampoo myself. I didn’t know the exact ingredients, but it made a huge difference to at least know what the real thing was like. Grandpa had taught me alchemy; once things settled down, I might experiment with it.

“All done. Let’s head back.”
“Mm.”

We dashed back to the dry part of the ruin and shook out our bodies to fling off the water. …We splashed each other a bit, but neither of us minded.

“Huh? What were you two doing?”

As I wrung out my soaked rags and sat near the fire, Filia poked her head out. She tilted her head at the sight of the two of us, dripping wet and naked.

“We washed in the rain.”
“Feels so much better. Filia, you should try too.”
“Oh, I see.”

It really did feel chilly once we were wet. Curled up by the fire, I looked up just in time to see Filia tugging a very reluctant Noche toward the rain.

“It’s cold and wet! I hate it, nya!”
“But chances like this don’t come often, you know?”

This region was usually dry. A downpour like this was rare.

There was a river nearby, but most of its flow came from water channels in the old ruins, shallow and weak. We also relied on it for drinking water, so we couldn’t just bathe in it. The spring beyond the walls wasn’t safe enough for a carefree dip.

The only decent bathing spots were monopolized by the slumfolk closer to the city. We had no way of using them.

Trying to wash in a swollen river would just be filthy and dangerous.

So the only time we could truly rinse away all the grime was during a storm like this.

“….”

Noche scowled when she saw Sufi and me huddled by the fire, cleaner now, our fur washed pale.

Her gaze kept flicking toward our hair and tails. The wash had turned my dull gray into a slightly cleaner white, and my skin was clearer too, showing the darker shade beneath the layers of grime.

For the record, when thoroughly washed, our fur turned a gleaming silver-white. It stood out too much, so we usually let it stay dirty on purpose.

“…Fine, nya.”
“O-okay.”

With a sudden scowl, Noche strode outside, Filia trailing after her. They went to take their turn under the downpour.

…Judging from that reaction, there must be some history between her and gray- or white-furred canine beastkin… Nobody says this is going to be easy, though.

“Sufi, let’s warm their food too.”
“…Yeah.”

I soothed the still-sulking Sufi, who hadn’t liked the hostile glare we’d gotten, and pulled out our stock of skewers. I placed them, leaves and all, near the fire. By the time the others returned, the food would be perfectly warm.

■■■

We stretched a pole high over the fire and hung our rags on it, waiting for the four sets to dry.

“If we were gonna strip anyway, we should’ve just done it from the start, nya.”

Noche, who had just come back from the rain, seemed calmer now. Even when she glanced at our hair, she didn’t react anymore.

“Y-yeah… I guess so.”

Filia curled up, embarrassed to be stripped down. I shook my head.

“If we took them off, we couldn’t wash them.”
“Ahh…”

We’d used the downpour to clean the filthy rags too, so keeping them on had been the smarter choice. …Not that I could say for sure they were actually clean now, but it had to be better than nothing.

“The rain just won’t stop, huh?”
“Yeah.”

When our shoulders pressed together, only that small patch of contact felt warm. I found myself wishing for a blanket we didn’t have, staring up at the rags that still showed no sign of drying.

Just having something to wear gave such a strange sense of comfort, even scraps of cloth like these.

“By the way… Sufi, Alice… are you two, um… staying here? Forever?”

After a brief silence, Filia blurted out the question, her voice trembling as though she couldn’t hold it back anymore. Come to think of it, we hadn’t explained that part at all.

“Mm, well. We’ve got somewhere to go.”

Sufi answered, and I followed up.

“In his last words, our grandpa asked us to head for the Holy Kingdom of Alveria.”

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a will but the words he left us shortly before passing away:

*“I will die soon. Be ready, and when that time comes, leave the village at once. Then set your sights on the Holy Kingdom of Alveria, far to the east across the continent. Your parents are there, and they should still be waiting for you.”*

Grandpa had clearly known something about where we came from. Sufi had managed to carry out a small pouch from our home, still hidden in our room. Inside were things he had told us never to show anyone.

I supposed they might hold clues. But… for now, I hadn’t had the heart to look.

“Alveria…? Uhh… where’s that, nya?”

Apparently intrigued, Noche joined the conversation.

“Um… if I remember right, it’s a big country in the east… right?”

I was a little surprised to hear Filia answer her so readily. For a slum orphan to know not only the name of a far-off country but also its location—that was unusual.

From what I’d seen in the village, even the chiefs or guild leaders were just barely literate, and many people didn’t even know the name of their own country.

“The east…”
“We’ll have to cross several countries. Maybe even the sea, too.”